I have an opal male, and 2 purple hens, also a cameo BS hen. The opal and purples are not yet breeding age, but I was hoping for some advice, opinions, input, or anything when it comes to these colors. I do not have much experience with these colors and I am wondering what I would get from breedings between them? Anything interesting? I also have a green and several spalding males as well as silver pieds of both genders that could be thrown in the mix. Just looking to try something different and hoping to hear what some of you with more experience think. Thanks much!

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Arbor

Joined: 14 Feb 2011
Posts: 58
Location: Niagara Canada

Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 7:57 pm

ok, breeding any of your males to either the purple or the cameo bs will only result in offspring that look like Indian Blue. You'd then be working with "splits" (all birds will be split to whatever colour the male is, while only the male offspring will be split to both the male colour and the female's colour). This can be difficult to work with if you don't have the space. If you are trying to get a male in purple or cameo (bs), the suggestion would be to breed their respective male offspring back to the mother to get them.
If you are after opal hens, breed any of the opal male's female offspring back to the father.
The only problem with this is that you are line breeding. This will often manifest unwanted genetic traits further down the road. The suggestion is that one should only line breed once or twice before introducing new blood from unrelated stock. I think with chickens, because you can get at least one generation per year to maturity, people will often go back to those they sold to 10 or more years ago to get birds from, as the genetics will have likely varied in a different direction.